Posts Tagged "moving"

I’ve thought about posting a couple of times in the last couple of weeks but everything here (and in my head) feels like such a disorganized mash-up of good and bad, overwhelming and (barely) manageable, frustrating and unexpectedly sweet.
And complicated. Everything seems to be more complicated and time consuming than it feels like it should be at the moment.
I like to have a point when I write something—a bit of a theme. And we’ve got too many important balls in the air to at the moment to pinpoint one, so I’ve temporarily tossed out my need for theme and I’ll just update you...

Want to know what the first full day in our new country was like? Here’s a peek at the nitty-gritty of moving to paradise…
Woke up excited that we got to move into our new house, a house we are buying(!!), for the first time. Relished the novelty of knowing we would have a home-base for the entire time we live in Vanuatu.
Picked up new car, and then had to drive it home on the other side of the road from what I’m used to, in the rain. After navigating manymanymany potholes and the steep hill on the dirt road leading out to our house, I felt thankful we’d bought a four-wheel drive...

Laos is beautiful this time of year. During these three months it’s easy to forget how oppressive I find the heat during the rest of the year. But it was deliciously cool this morning as I walked through the streets of downtown. The Mekong glowed in the early light. Tuk tuk drivers shrugged and smiled as I declined their offers. I thought—as I’ve thought many times since we made the decision to move—that there are many things I will miss about this country.
I know this move is a good decision for us. Mike will be taking on a Country Director role that’s a good step for him...

Pre-Script: I wrote this post yesterday and was telling Mike about it last night, when he informed me that Thanksgiving is next week. Oh well. I’m gonna post it anyway, because things have been going really well, but I saw pickups and workers arriving at the unfinished houses next door this morning and now the sweet strains of electric power tools and nail guns are serenading us. If this becomes the new norm, then next week it might have all gone to hell in a hand basket and I’ll want to write about that, so I better get my happy thanksgiving post in while I’m still feeling the vibe....

I’m back on the writer’s schedule for A Life Overseas after my “maternity leave”. Here’s today’s post…
If you have a toddler or young child and you’ve moved overseas, you might have learned (as I am learning) that the adage that kids are resilient doesn’t mean that change doesn’t cost them. Most children might be generally adaptable, but many are firmly attached to valued routines and known, safe spaces. Moving comes at an energy and emotional cost to young children, just as it does to adults.
It’s been a week today since I arrived back in...

Ever since I published my post discussing how I hadn’t taken time yet to think about farewelling Luang Prabang, Mike has been bugging encouraging me to write a goodbye post on things I’ll miss about this little fairytale town. He even wrote his own list to show me how it’s done, titled the document “I like LPB”, and put it in our shared Dropbox folder.
Mike’s list has 36 items on it. I haven’t read them yet, because I figured that might be cheating.
I thought briefly about just posting his list and being done with it, but regretfully decided that was also probably cheating.
So...

Christmas was just a couple of weeks ago, right? I remember thinking that I needed to write a post on books I’d loved in 2012, set some creative goals for 2013, and find a great birthday present for Mike to make up for the fact that my Christmas presents consisted of some basil seeds, my old broken kindle, and a child’s toy with a bite taken out it.
But now it’s April. I still need to do all of that, and Mike’s birthday was in the beginning of March.
I’m taking a deep, soothing breath and telling myself that this is to be expected when you live in a small town whose slogan is...

Change is in the air. After three years here in Luang Prabang, we’re leaving. My husband, Mike, is taking up a new job in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), so we’re packing up our life here and moving. We’re also having another baby in just over four months.
Because of the lack of quality medical care in Laos, it would be less than wise for me to give birth in this country. Because I have a chronic health condition called lymphedema that makes enduring hot weather heat difficult and damaging, it would also be less than wise to stay here, heavily pregnant, through the worst of the hot...

WE HAVE MADE A DECISION ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT!
Yes, after eight months of limbo I do think every letter in that phrase deserves to be a capital.
We are moving to Vientiane – the capital of Laos. Mike has signed a two-year contract to be the Strategic Initiatives Manager for the development organization he works for.
This has all sorts of flow-on implications for the rest of the year. For starters, I can’t stay in Laos during the third trimester of my pregnancy, so I’ll be heading to Australia sometime in mid-May. Thankfully, we can stay up here in Luang Prabang until then (previously we...

The same weekend that Love At The Speed Of Email launched, way back in June last year, Mike and I learned that we’d be leaving Luang Prabang in April 2013.
Mike’s position is being handed over to a Lao national staff member, which is good. Working yourself out of a job is exactly what you want to do in international development work, and Mike’s great at that sort of capacity building.
So this is a good thing, and we always knew we wouldn’t be here long term.
And, yet.
There’s a difference between knowing you won’t be somewhere long term – that you might be moving in “oh, a...

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"It is such a treat to read a well-crafted memoir, written with a journalists’ elegance."

(“Judge, Writer’s Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards”)

"Love At The Speed Of Email is part grand romance, part travel memoir and part essay on life’s most precious gifts. Lisa McKay is a phenomenal writer; clever and comedic, poignant and pitch-perfect. You will love this love story.”

"In this fast-paced, thought-provoking debut novel, McKay, a psychologist who works with humanitarian relief, explores injustice, religious reconciliation, suffering and faith... This is one of Christian fiction's best novels of the year."

(Publisher's Weekly)

We writers are advised to pick a brand and stick to it. At that task I have so far failed. I write fiction, memoir, and books about long distance relationships. And I blog about whatever crosses my path along the way—love, life in Laos, kids, cancer, and the rats in the roof (literal and metaphorical). Stick around. I’d love to hear some of your rat stories, too.